A psychologist discusses the best self-help literature for life and practice.

10/12/2011

How to Write a Great Self-Help Book: Tip #1

I've been away from my blog for a little while. I'm taking a creative writing class at a local college, and seeing what else I can write these days that's not 'technical writing'. It has me thinking about what separates the great self-help books from the nice effort, but... ones.

These days, anyone can publish an e-book or self-publish, and it seems like everyone is trying it. I'd like to find some really wonderful new self-help books to talk about on my blog that are not by established, big-name authors. I've been sent a number of self-published, or (very) small publisher ones, and I've noticed some charming bits and some unappealing trends. So I thought I would put together a list of tips to help people decide how--or whether--to try to write a self-help book that people might really want to read.

Tip #1: Be an expert in your field, or consult one (or more)

By expert, I mean credentialled, practiced, experienced and generally credible. In other words, it's not just you that thinks you have something to say on the subject. Most other people would think so, too.

Testimonial books by non-experts (e.g., the story of your successful divorce) can be really inspiring, but if you are going to give advice at all in the context of the book, get one or more professionals involved to make sure this is truly wise advice that will not hurt anyone, and could really help. Better yet, just stick to your narrative and make it genuine and personal (Eat Pray Love is one successful example of this approach.) Journalist Abigail Trafford, author of Crazy Time--the classic what-divorce-feels-like-and-what-to-expect-book-- did both, by gathering in a number of expert advisors and telling her own story within an educative context. You only need one honest collaborator to make your book more 'expert', though.